ABSTRACT
For a quar te r -cen tury-indeed , a lmost since R icha rd N i x o n s igned the Shanghai C o m m u n i q u e i n 1972-a c o m f o r t i n g , even h e a r t w a r m i n g n o t i o n has p r eva i l ed a m o n g m a n y po l i cymake r s a n d experts o n A m e r i c a n p o l i c y t o w a r d the People's Republ ic of China . They bel ieve that Ch ina w i l l i n ev i t ab ly become m o r e l i ke the West-non-ideologica l , p ragmat ic , ma t e r i alistic, a n d progress ive ly freer i n i ts cu l tu re a n d pol i t i cs . A c c o r d i n g to t h e m , C h i n a is m i l i t a r i l y w e a k a n d un threa ten ing ; w h i l e Bei j ing tends to w a r d rhe tor ica l excess, its actual behav io r has been far more caut ious, a i m e d at the o v e r r i d i n g goals o f economic g r o w t h a n d reg iona l stabil i ty.
